Marcialonga 2009

February 4, 2009

Lavazeloppet

The 32nd edition of this 22 km Classical Technique WL Silver race took place on Friday, January 23. In previous years it happened on Thursday; the shift to Friday was motivated by the fact that many skiers from the nordic countries arrive only on Thursday. The Passo Lavaze ski area is beautiful and the race course attractive with some fast descents and challenging (because of the altitude reaching 1900 m) climbs. Many skiers who spend the whole week in Fiemme-Fassa like to train at Passo Lavaze.
During the days preceding the race it was warm - one of the worst waxing conditions occurred on Tuesday with 0 °C and falling snow! But on the race day the temperature kept well below freezing, making waxing easy and the tracks hard.

Marcialonga   25.01.2009

Since the second of December the registration for Marcialonga was closed, a luck for the already registered ones, because snow, weather and atmosphere were great at the race day. Nearly 6000 participants from 26 countries came to the edition 2009. Half of them arrived from Skandinavia, over 2000 from Norway. This was the first time that over 1000 women were registered for the event.

At this race weekend everything is focused on the Marcialonga. It's great how they prepare the track, passing some villages through their centres. Also the public transportation is a logistical challenge. Streets were closed, a lot of supporters and volunteers were beside and helped. Live broadcast in the Italian TV is also a point of importance of that event in that region.

Friday before Marcialonga is Lavaze time, a classic race with 22 km is opening the weekend. Around 400 skier finished the race on an altitude between 1750 and 1950 meters over sealevel. Saturday is for the most picking start numbers and taking part on the master welcome or the official opening ceremony. Also on Saturday the child race in Tesero, which is important for getting juniors and talents and Marcialonga participants for the future

The start was again quite good with that corridor system. After elite skier start,a kind of disturbance comes into the other start waves. Because its important to be as soon as possible on ski, because the bottlenecks on the first kilometres. That’s a problem for some, but that makes the Marcialonga feeling. The elite group were very fast, Ahrlin was in front of Aukland and Tynell, all under 3 hours.
The woman race was won by the grand woman from Norway, Hilde Petersen, in front of Hansson and Lintzen, both from Sweden. Again it gave some disqualifications, mostly from top skiers, because officials checked the classic technique at the last Cascata uphill. And skating is not what they want to see.

The track was very well prepared, with a minimum of artificial snow, unusual for the last years. Only at some parts, like start, or crossing streets the track got deep and soft for the slower skiers. The weather was great, not to cold in the morning, around -3 / -4 degrees at the start and bit over zero at the finish. The warm tents at the start area were well visited. Waxing was not complicated, elite went with dry wax, but all other were in good hands with a klister as base. Just the last 2,5 km were hard, but there is the choice to re-wax for the uphill, which is often a good decision. Live music in Moena, and a lot of enthusiastic spectators at the final climb were the highlights of that race.

At the finish the clothes bags were ready to catch, a buffet with noodles and other food was offered to the skiers. Although a lot of people were in that area, only short waiting lines existed for food, drink, diploma and WL stamps. Overall it was a great edition of that famous race, thanks to the participants and the Marcialonga team.

Here some results of the IAWLS members:

This page was last revised on March 15, 2009